Building construction sites, where residential and commercial buildings are being fabricated typically use a large number of electrical equipment, such as saws, drills, and other fabricating equipment. It is not uncommon during the building process to have long electrical cords being connected from a central power source, such as a generator or the main utility line.
What is also ubiquitous at a construction site are “five gallon” construction buckets. These buckets are inexpensive and are used to carry tools, construction materials, and water. Also, one can purchase fabric organizers that sit on top, or around the edge of the bucket and have pockets for holding hand tools. These tool management systems that are placed on the buckets also serve are a convenient way to organize and transport tools to and from the construction site.
There are different types of cord and hose management systems. For the purpose of this application, the term “cord” may refer to a cord, hose, wire, rope, fishing line, or other similar type of material.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,801,303 issued to Grace N. Pailing discloses a cord reel for winding and storing the power cords of electrical appliances such as toasters and kitchen mixers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,313,498 issued to Lawrence W. Wasson discloses a wire dispensing reel particularly useful for dispensing the wire ties that masonry workers use to temporarily hold sections of re-bar together until the concrete can be poured around them and rigidified.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,367 issued to Norman Meson et al, assigned to Indicel Co., Ltd. discloses a cord winder that features a number of planetary drums that orbit about a fixed sun drum when driven by a crank or spring motor.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,433 issued to James D. Kovacik et al., assigned to Alert Stamping and Mfg. Co., Inc. discloses a manually wound cord storage unit featuring a spool that is rotatably mounted on a hub.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,557,792 issued to Mark Snow discloses an apparatus for storing and dispensing holiday light strings, particularly of the “icicle” variety that feature a plurality of short light segments that hang down orthogonal to the main line.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved cord storage reel that can easily wind, unwind and store long wires, cables, and cords more conveniently. And also it would be beneficial to have a protective cover to protect the wires, cables or cords from further physical damage, which could be mounted on a five gallon bucket for ease in portability.